“Over the summer, Heather called Denise over and apologized for how ugly it got in the press when she first started dating Richie," a friend of Heather's tells me. "This was before they got back together. So when Denise and Richie started seeing each other again, Denise didn’t want to move forward unless Heather was OK with it. Then Heather called and said she was happy for the two of them.”

Richards first dove into a romance with the Bon Jovi guitarist almost immediately after he filed for divorce from Locklear in 2006. But the tabloid backlash may have doomed the relationship, as soon Richards and Sambora called it quits. Now, the couple is back together and taking things slow. The pair recently vacationed in Hawaii, although they did not stay together and flew separately.

“They are very close friends but are both putting their children first,” a friend of Sambora’s tells me. “They had nice dinners together with each other's children and a few more romantic ones alone. But Denise also made sure to spend quality time alone with her little ones. Who knows what the future holds, but at the moment they are both very happy.”